Archive for May, 2009

So, Manny Ramirez has tested positive for a performance enhancing drug, and will serve his 50 game suspension.

And I have been getting some razzing by friends who are Yankees fans: It’s finally time that a (former) Red Sox has been accused of using PEDs; one of their key players on their 2004 and 2007 teams. In a stretch of bad breaks for their team (Giambi’s admission of something not specific to A-Rod’s, well, everything), it is something that they can come back and say “Ha.”

While it definitely sucks that he was caught, I guess I can take some solace in the fact that he is a LA Dodger and not a Boston Red Sox. But there is no denying that there could now be the suspicion that he’s been using for a long time.

The fact that Manny is not going to fight this at all is a bit odd, though. He’s saying that he took a banned substance that he and his doctor didn’t realize was on the list. There’s a small chance that he might be telling the truth, and it is something weird that a doctor from Florida (they always seem to be from Florida) would have prescribed to Manny because he is looking to become more fertile. But one would have to reason that he just took his lumps to keep them from looking any further into what was really going on.

There is one thing that I would have to agree with Manny in his brief admission statement: he was tested many times before and has never failed. While I think that the number 15 is just slightly exaggerated, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were a few times that he was actually tested.

This could be due to the fact that maybe they didn’t have the test in place before for this specific drug, HGC. Or maybe he didn’t start doing steroids until recently.

A 36-year-old ballplayer who relies heavily on his offensive numbers and was searching for a 4-year, $100 million dollar contract at the end of the year would have had to make his second half of 2008 spectacular. Which it was. And like Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa in the late 90s when they were hitting bombs and everyone was fawning over them, everyone was saying the same thing with Manny in LA.

Look how he can hit when he wants to hit. Look at him try.

Outside of the fact that it just proved that he was a quitter in Boston (and I’m shocked that it showed in the lack of interest in him this off-season), maybe it was just evidenced that he started juicing when he got there. But I imagine if that were the case, and not that I’m an expert in steroids and cycles, but I would guess for him to be productive in the second half of a season, he would’ve had to start long before the trade.

Or maybe he was just using steroids to recover from his hamstring injuries that have plagued him while he was in Boston. And he wouldn’t have to remember which one it would be. It would have taken care of both of them.